Broberg Says UC Davis Split Sample Reverses LSU Results

Owner/trainer Karl Broberg said he feels "wronged" by the Louisiana State University equine testing laboratory after he said split-sample testing cleared one of his horses of three medication positives that that had been called by that lab.

Broberg said he was notified this winter that Tiz One Fee, a 7-year-old Tiz The One mare he trains and owns under his stable name End Zone Athletics, was reported by Medication Surveillance Laboratory at the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine to have tested positive following a Nov. 24 allowance victory at Delta Downs for oxycodone, citalopram, and levamisole. The presence of the three drugs, had they been confirmed, likely would have put Broberg at risk of fines and suspensions, the largest potentially from oxycodone, classified by the Association of Racing Commissioners International as a class 1 drug in penalty class A.

Follow-up testing by Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California, Davis showed no prohibited amounts of the medications, Broberg said he was informed March 8. This clears the mare to resume racing after she had been placed on the stewards' list, a listing of horses temporarily prohibited from running, according to Broberg.

Split-sample testing is meant to provide due process. 

"I don't see how Louisiana can continue to do business with that laboratory. They should have just rerun that test themselves," said Broberg, annually one of the leading owners and trainers in North America by victories.

News of Broberg's split-sample results were first reported in Paulick Report.

Broberg said he was notified Monday of the latest results by Larry Munster, assistant executive director of the Louisiana Racing Commission. This update came after he was called before Delta Downs stewards this winter to discuss the initial findings.

"They're listing drugs that nobody in the right name would think about getting near a horse," Broberg recalled, noting the unlikelihood of three drug positives related to one horse. 

Reached at his office March 9, Munster referred questions to Charles Gardiner III, executive director of the LRC. Gardiner did not immediately return a telephone call and email message seeking confirmation and comment.

Broberg said the incident cost him $3,750 in split-sample testing charges and more in terms of lost opportunity. Earlier this year he was prohibited from running Tiz One Fee in a $50,000 starter stakes race for which she was eligible and perhaps other races during the two months he awaited notification from the LRC about the split sample sent to UC Davis.

Horses can continue to race while awaiting split samples in some states, but not in Louisiana, where a trainer must accept an initial laboratory finding to avoid the stewards' list, Broberg said.

"It's a horrible deal," he said. "I even went to them and said, let me pull hair (for a test) and prove to you guys that this horse doesn't have anything. I just want to run this horse. They dismissed that as a possibility."

In an April 2020 status update on the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium website, LSU is listed as ISO 17025 accredited but not having the full RMTC laboratory accreditation of eight laboratories, including UC Davis.

"If you're another trainer right now and get a bad test, imagine how skeptical you are going to be," Broberg said.